My Goodreads review: Everything about this book was special. The ten American artists and the illustrations they created. The ten chosen quotes from ten different presidents. The four pages of information at the end. As I teacher, the book SCREAMS mini-lessons. Art, history, language arts, social consciousness....I can even use some of these great quotes for handwriting assignments with meaning and verve. I splurged. I wonder whose brainstorm it was to put it together?

This book is about how we record memories when we can't read or write. Great premise. Good storytelling. Super book.
There's a wonderful TEACHER'S GUIDE on the Candlewick site.
There are also a zillion ideas on The Classroom Bookshelf site that have to do with oral histories and lots of other things.

My comments: This book of crazy, wacky poems is just plain fun. I plan to use it as a writing starter/prompt with my fourth graders....read them a poem without sharing the illustration, get them to sketch what they see in their minds eye from the words alone, then share the illustration. I can see the writing continuing on from there...some of my clever kids will fly!

I used this in my classroom on 9/11/13. I read it aloud and gave the kids some background information. Then we watercolored a 3 x 3 painting of the flowers on the ground with only the front of a pair of shoes showing. It worked out really well. (This small size was so that it would fit in their 5 x 7 memory books. They wrote a couplet to go with it, sharing something of what they learned.

The 9/11 Memorial site has some ideas for lesson plans, including the use of September Roses.

Postcard Stats Since August, 2015

About Me

I'm a newly-retired fourth grade classroom teacher, I've taught fifth grade, middle school literature, and college-level children's literature. Now I work as an assistant in the Youth Services department of a big public library....heaven! Originally from New England, I spent 14 years in the glorious sunshine of Tucson, Arizona, and moved a year ago to south central Pennsylvania - a new adventure! I adore my kids, my grandkids (I got married at "age 9"), my students, books and reading, quilts and quilting, yarn and knitting, papercrafts and altering books, genealogy, letterboxing, - and hitting the road to adventure far and wide. There are only two states that I've not yet visited, but I'm determined to get to all of them, even if I have to row.... Next goal? Foreign countries? US capitals or major cities?